NRA Slams Biden Meeting

Leah Barkoukis

1/10/2013 4:57:00 PM - Leah Barkoukis

The NRA met with Vice President Biden and the gun violence task force today as part of a series of meetings with key stakeholders in the gun debate. The NRA’s statement about the meeting confirms that that White House was never interested in having an honest, inclusive debate about how to prevent tragedies like Newtown from happening again, but rather, is focused on its “agenda to attack the Second Amendment.”

Fairfax, Va.– The National Rifle Association of America is made up of over 4 million moms and dads, daughters and sons, who are involved in the national conversation about how to prevent a tragedy like Newtown from ever happening again. We attended today's White House meeting to discuss how to keep our children safe and were prepared to have a meaningful conversation about school safety, mental health issues, the marketing of violence to our kids and the collapse of federal prosecutions of violent criminals.

We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment. While claiming that no policy proposals would be “prejudged,” this Task Force spent most of its time on proposed restrictions on lawful firearms owners - honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans. It is unfortunate that this Administration continues to insist on pushing failed solutions to our nation's most pressing problems. We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen. Instead, we will now take our commitment and meaningful contributions to members of congress of both parties who are interested in having an honest conversation about what works - and what does not.

The vice president is to submit the task force’s recommendations to President Obama by Tuesday. Biden revealed on Thursday that “an emerging set of recommendations” includes restricting high-capacity magazines and having universal background checks, which would not only close the "gun show loophole" but would also require background checks for all transactions, including private sales.

After yesterday’s meeting with victims of gun violence, Biden said that “the president is going to act,” even if that means using executive orders.